The Babylon Podject Presents: PodSpace9

CW: 6,741 contains graphic depictions of non-consensual surgery and suicide, so if that's a problem you're safe to listen through around 19:30. S5E3: Truth Be Told S5E4: 6,741 Keith David Appreciation Club Truth Be Told : TGI Blackbeard's? John does The Worst version of the "on two dates" trope. We actually run into surprisingly few characters who are not related to people John and Kara killed. Th...

BSOD : Team Machine is on the run, and we've split the party! This is a high stakes, high tension episode. Fusco may have crossed the threshold where knowing about the Machine might finally be safer. Remember PS3 supercomputers? A diversion into linguistics. SNAFU : We get a Freaky Friday! Somehow it works! We continue to stan Amy Acker. We also get a long diversion into the complex dynamics of in...

Asylum : Pneumatic tubes! Elias is classy during revenge, Martine dies a classless but perfect death. We doubt that Harold doesn't know what a pneumatic tube canister looks like. root's scene on the ledge is inteeeeense. If the bad guys don't have Fusco's kid he's functionally invincible. YHWH : Fetch quests! Fax machines! Harold seeing the results of his efforts, in many ways. Many antagonists ge...

Search & Destroy : Jude and Justen connect over South Bay vibes. This tech ceo is a scarily prescient character sketch. Jude has serious complaints about the realism of the technology... in a show about AGIs. The writer of this episode clearly knows nothing about software development. Hand stuff. Zoe is best. root treats food service employees with respect. In short, Jude's tech distress in th...

This is not a star trek podcast. Justen forgets our favorite Telepath. A coughing break was edited out for your convenience. Karma : 2010 Retro Finch, Digital Vigilante--the Harold version of a rampage. Therapist Listening Posture. We continue to hate the John-therapist plotline and spend a long time decomposing it. This episode does Fusco dirty. Skip : A really intense Harold/root episode. Discou...

Justen describes, at length, a single player board game. There's probably at least 10% Person of Interest content in this episode, but no guarantees. Q&A : Siri, MMA, and morgues. Claire returns. The stable of characters in PoI is huuuge. Any time Harold's computer gets stolen, we assume it's on purpose, like John getting into a garbage truck. Justen knows a surprising amount about MMA law. Ju...

The gang reconvenes after an extended recording hiatus (it shows...), discusses the weather, and then... MIA: This is a d&d plotline. Just a reminder--torture does not work. Ana goes on a rant about New York. The Californians counter with a nuanced discussion of west coast cartography. Tweet the show with your opinions about geography, please, Zathras begs you. The slimmed-down team feels like...

Yet again, Star Trek talk. And then we get a 10 minute tour of Justen's bedroom furniture. IKEA, sponsor us--this podcast resembles one of Jude's bookcases, for sure. If/Then/Else : It's Remedial Chaos Theory! The show played with the format of broadcast tv to emotionally whiplash you, and it doesn't come across as well on streaming, but that doesn't make this any less of an amazing episode... Sha...

Zathras warning: LOTS of Star Trek in the beginning of this one. Like, nearly 10 minutes. The management apologizes. The Devil You Know : The theme of this episode is "who does the protecting, and who do they choose to protect." Where the hell did Shaw hide a P90 in a cosmetics counter? ELIAS! You know a goon is done for when you finally learn his name. Fusco kicks butt. Elias may be a moral monst...

Jude goes a long way to make a gif. The fundamental warcrimes component of Battletech. Honor Among Thieves : We hit the warcrimes airhorn a lot. Some of the logistics seem unrealistic here, in a show about godlike AIs. The threat of a pandemic was much more fun when it wasn't a thing we'd actually experienced. Shaw is a bisexual icon. The fundamental differences between The Machine and Samaritan,...

Prophets : This episode hits different in 2023. John's sexytimes sad motif means a recurring character, and John is a terrible spy. Samaritan is taking active measures. AIs don't understand morals, in Finch's view. Root is great in this episode. Has John ever voted? No one mock Ana for her bravery in this episode. Pretenders : John has a fanboy. Elias and Dominic meet. Good nerd-flirting. Surprisi...

Justen hates auto-zoom. Wingman : Which PoI writer has written the most Fusco F*cks episodes? John isn't allowed to do his favorite things (kneecapping) any more now that he's a cop. Bear is the best boy, yet again. Harold gets to buy an anti-tank weapon. Jude admits he's wrong. Fusco looks good in purple, but why can't they tailor his jacket right? The wingman guy isn't pickup artist 2.0, he's ge...

Samaritan got to Jude's audio, sorry. Be prepared for a ranking of all Nolans. The show has shifted from Wealthy Man Procedural to AI Apocalypse. Panopticon : Shaw is a perfume girl, John is an undercover cop, and Finch is a professor. Ana was close on her predictions with Shaw at least. Elias--welcome back! Root and Finch have switched places motivation-wise and it's delightful. Harold doesn't ge...

A House Divided : Five numbers, all relevant... to The Machine. Shaw and John have to work with the O'Terminator. Root has a B-Team? Oh great, Vigilance is running a toooootally fair trial. Seeing Root's whole background thing is really cool. The Greer/Finch dialogue should have won an Emmy. Collier is divisive. Deus Ex Machina : Four Oh Shit Episode. This is a questionable trial. The GLOMAR defen...

You know software is evil if it doesn't have Dark mode. Death Benefit : The Rules Committee does... something, we think? root asks Shaw out on a murder spree--sorry, date. John reverts to his CIA training. AI murder, the sexiest ethical dilemma. No, actually, it's not sexy, it's fascinating to watch Harold finally come to grips with what he's created. "I've sort of gotten used to saving people" is...

S3E18: Allegiance S3E19: Most Likely To... Alternate episode names: Grosse Pointe Root/Bear is Fred, Right? Justen can't remember where Ohio is. Zathras aggressively edited the bullshittery but you might want to skip to 5:48 to avoid 3 minutes of old people complaining about colds. Allegiance : Who needs fancy tracking devices when you could just use Bear. Numbers of the Week are now almost exclus...

We were bored and decided to get together to talk about what we'd done this year but had not yet made content about. Some content snuck in. Sorry. You should feel no obligation to listen to this whatsoever. *** Connect with the show at @babylonpodject and at @atuin_pod , or if Twitter is dead by now, @compleatdiscography@mendeddrum.org on Mastodon. Help us keep the lights on via our Patreon! Juste...

Jude is sleepy, Ana is a vindictive mathematical hitwoman, and Justen keeps an even keel. Last Call : Expanding on the word "no". What this episode fails to do is what PoI normally does well--taking a trope and genre-shifting it. Someone knowing how electricity works should not be the highlight of an episode. There's so much they could have done with this episode but nothing works and everyone's c...

In which Jude is tortured by the memory of Elmo. 4C : Holly, the flight attendant, carries this episode on her shoulders. The offer to bribe John in bitcoin is perfection. John can't ignore the fact that half of First Class is unconscious. The Machine knows that the ISA might be the cause of the Number, and thus cannot hand him over. Really, a flight attendant f*** buddy makes a lot of sense for J...

Show notes not written by a GPT3. For some reason the crew decides to discuss their future plans for thanksgiving during an episode scheduled to air THREE WEEKS LATER. Lethe : John is off drinkin' and fightin' and not gettin' therapy in this episode, so Shaw handles the number. VIGILANCE is looking for something in the cancer patient's memory. Samaritan??!? Saul Rubinek carries this episode on his...

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING FOR THIS EPISODE The Crossing : We discuss the big casting change. It's not fridging but it smells freezer-burned. The utterly pointless kiss that turns this from drama into our trauma. Carter is the linchpin keeping PoI as a procedural. The Devil's Share : Fusco is so good. The value of a well-executed trope (see also: rampage!!! and Hurt performed by Johnny Cash). Does surv...

David Zaslav is our eternal enemy, and piracy in the service of the preservation of media is an unequivocal good. Justen goes on a VERY long Gundam tangent. The Perfect Mark : Jude and Justen disagree on whether the main plot is good or just chaotically enjoyable. A friendship is put to the test over Dune. The Inverse Ninja law is invoked. HR should have had a Yakkity Sax leitmotif in this episode...

Razgovor : This was from the brief time when it was ok to like Russians. Bath salts, how topical. This is a thrill ride of an episode, and a lot of Shaw and the rest of the team growing closer. Justen has opinions about nickel-plated 1911s. Jude shows a little bit of backstory. Mors Praematura : It's actually really not good to get knocked out this much. Finch made a Faraday cage in the Library, a...

Ladykiller : Even the show doesn't like this week's number, but that doesn't stop us liking how actually realistic his reactions are to the absurd situation he's in. Plus, any episode that has Carter, Shaw, and Zoe working together is an automatic A+. Amy Acker Fan Hour Time! Reasonable Doubt : This "murderous spouses" plot is better than last season's only because there's the hope they ended up j...

Liberty : GUI changes. The gang takes down numbers like it's their job. Carter's got Elias stashed in her basement. The Machine is acting beyond just dumping numbers now. We get the start of the best odd-couple pairing for the rest of the series. Falafel stands replacing inconspicuous park benches for secret meetups. 3.5 star secret. Nothing to Hide : Aaron Burr? Revolutionary War imagery? A new s...